The Nuremberg Defense is a legal defense that essentially states that the defendant was "only following orders" ("Befehl ist Befehl", literally "order is order") and is therefore not responsible for his crimes. The defense was most famously employed during the Nuremberg Trials, after which it is named.

2 comments:

Actually, it's Lederman's posts, not Yoo's memos (which if I understand correctly have not all been disclosed yet), that are in chronological order in my post. But based on what has been disclosed and read, the conclusion is the same: Yoo is far outside the pale in his interpretations, and sloppy in his legal constructions. It ought to be difficult for him to claim a Befehl ist Befehl defense himself, as he was constructing the basis for those Befehle.